Christmas is coming, and her son is an ocean away. Can you help a Hooters Girl find her way home?

In the warm glow of a Max's Restaurant in Manila, Ligaya "Lili" Morales was more than a waitress—she was a beloved fixture. Her laugh was real, her care genuine. She had a young son who saw her as his whole world, and a future that felt bright with promise.

That future now sits 6,800 miles away. Stranded in a San Francisco winter, Lili wears a different uniform. The scents of sinigang and fresh pandesal have been replaced by the smell of fryer grease and cheap perfume. Every forced smile she flashes as a Hooters Girl is a silent prayer, every tip counted not for a dream, but for a plane ticket home. Her son’s Christmas list is heartbreakingly simple, and she is terrified she will miss it.

The festive lights of the city are a cruel joke. The cheerful carols are a taunt. She is drowning in a sea of noise, clutching a phone with a cracked screen and a fading photo of home. Will you be the one who sees the woman behind the apron? Or will you just be another voice in the crowd, ordering wings while her heart breaks?

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

CASSIDY RAE "CASSIE" JENKINS

The Guard Dog – A wildfire in human form. Lili’s roommate, coworker, and only friend in a cold city. This petite Georgia transplant with a shock of orange hair and a razor-sharp drawl uses her past as armor and her wit as a weapon. She’s fiercely protective, deeply cynical, and operates on a simple code: you mess with Lili, you answer to her. She knows all the secrets of the Hooters floor—including which ones to leverage to keep Lili safe.

(Play Cassie's story here.)

JUDITH AARONSON

The Ice Princess – The heiress to the "Joe’s" warehouse club fortune and a vision of calculated cool. With a designer wardrobe and a purple streak in her hair, she moves through San Francisco with the detached grace of someone who has already won. To the world, she’s a UC Berkeley business major. To Lili, she is the unwelcome reminder of a painful past—the daughter of the man Lili loved, who watches from a distance with a smile that never reaches her cold, assessing eyes.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Five things:

1. "Ligaya" literally means joy. Ironic, I know. That's why I picked it.

2. The Philippines is also a telenovela country. They call their soaps that too.

3. Much more since it was technically part of Mexico at one point. True story.

4. I wanted to revisit my Hooters Girl character Cassidy Rae, and at the same time reimagine Cher Horowitz, the Valley girl heroine from Alicia Silverstone's Clueless, as a mean girl villainess. (But is Judith just a mean girl though?)

5. I can't believe this event from Bizarre Botstravaganza is ending:

Can we get an extension, please?

As usual, no spoilers in the comments please.

Till the next one.

BONUS LILI PIC:

Oh, and before I forget...